August 6, 2014

Ritz on the Fritz

I have had a problem with the last several boxes of Ritz crackers I’ve purchased.

The crackers are packaged in four cellophane sleeves in the 13.7 oz package. Even though the cardboard box holding the four inner packages appears undamaged, there is an unpleasant surprise when one of the sleeves is opened. In their sleeve, the crackers seem fine. In many cases, however, when the crackers are removed, the edges of the crackers crumble. This is illustrated in the photo shown, which depicts five crackers that were stacked one atop another in their sleeve. (Click on the photo for a larger image.)

I love Ritz crackers and have usually been dissatisfied with similar crackers on the market. I am, however, thinking of switching to Keebler Town House crackers.

Ritz crackers are made by Nabisco, once known as National Biscuit Company, whose history stretches back more than 200 years. Following many mergers, acquisitions, and splits, the crackers are now made in Mexico by Mondeléz International.

I called Mondeléz International today, and the customer representative I spoke to seemed surprised at my problem. Either the company has not had many complaints like mine or does not want to admit to a serious manufacturing defect. I have to wonder if the crackers are thinner than they used to be or have otherwise changed in recent years.

2 comments:

Lionel, I am a Club cracker eater myself but my mother is a Ritz cracker fan and has been for years and years. She has also noticed the tendency to break easily and I discovered several complaints from others when I researched this for her. The Ritz Cracker Facebook page has complaints similar to yours:

https://www.facebook.com/ritzcrackers/posts/10151219710376665

And the pissedconsumer.com site has many quality control complaints. This makes me sad and reminds me of another product that I used to love (and did for many, many years) but no longer use since manufacturing moved to Mexico and quality plummeted.

Prismacolor colored and drawing pencils were the top of the line product for many artists for as long as I can remember. Then they moved the manufacturing plant to Mexico to avoid paying decent wages and benefits and the pencils started breaking, the quality was terrible, and the company seemed indifferent to numerous consumer complaints and a general outcry from artists all over the world. They continue to claim that quality hasn't changed when it is so obvious that is has gone way, way down.

I guess if companies are willing to hurt their fellow citizens to increase profits by taking away their jobs then they also have no problem with reducing the quality of their products and maintaining the same prices, skating on a reputation that will eventually be permanently damaged. Sad, indeed.